Categories: Dividends

4 Dow Dividend Stocks Defying the Decline

401(K) 2013

It hasn’t been a very good start to 2014, especially if you’re in the bull camp. So far, the young year has seen blue-chip stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average sink a collective 5% through Feb. 6. Yet despite the aggregate decline in the Dow, there still are a few industrials trading to the plus side.

In fact, there are four stocks that have defied the latest decline in the Dow: Merck (MRK), Caterpillar (CAT), Pfizer (PFE) and Cisco Systems (CSCO).

What’s particularly compelling about this quartet of Dow winners is that each pays a hefty dividend. That dividend, measured by the annual dividend yield, is just what the doctor ordered for investors who want to make sure they continue to ring the cash register with dividend payments every quarter.

The table below shows the year-to-date total return in each of the four Dow stocks defying the decline, along with each stock’s annual dividend yield.

Ticker	Company Name	YTD Total Return	Dividend Yield
MRK	Merck & Co Inc	9.05%	3.19%
CAT	Caterpillar Inc	5.52%	2.45%
PFE	Pfizer Inc	2.75%	3.11%
CSCO	Cisco Systems Inc	1.44%	2.88%

Big Pharma firm Merck is the winning prescription so far in 2014, with a whopping 9.05% total return and a yield of 3.19%. The closest to Merck’s stellar jump is construction equipment maker Caterpillar, which is up a robust 5.52% since the start of the year. CAT also offers investors an attractive 2.45% yield, although that’s the smallest yield of the four standouts.
Another big drug maker, Pfizer, is in the green so far this year with a 2.75% total return. For those who crave yield, PFE’s 3.11% is a strong dose of the right kind of drug. Finally, tech giant Cisco Systems is in positive territory with a 1.44% year-to-date climb. CSCO stock has an appealing yield of 2.88%, a definite winner for dividend-oriented investors, or for investors looking to buy hot stocks in a chilly market.

Jim Woods

Jim Woods is a 20-plus-year veteran of the markets with varied experience as a broker, hedge fund trader, financial writer, author and newsletter editor. Jim is the editor of Intelligence Report, Investing Edge, the Bullseye Stock Trader, and The Deep Woods (formerly the Weekly ETF Report). His books include co-authoring, “Billion Dollar Green: Profit from the Eco Revolution,” and “The Wealth Shield: How to Invest and Protect Your Money from Another Stock Market Crash, Financial Crisis or Global Economic Collapse.” He’s also ghostwritten many books and articles, as well as edited content for some of the investment industry’s biggest luminaries. His articles have appeared on many leading financial websites, including StockInvestor.com, InvestorPlace.com, Main Street Investor, MarketWatch, Street Authority, Human Events and many others. Jim formerly worked with Investor’s Business Daily founder William J. O’Neil, helping to author training courses in the CANSLIM stock-picking methodology. The independent firm TipRanks rates Jim the No. 3 financial blogger in the world (out of more than 6,000). TipRanks calculates that, since 2012, he's made 361 successful recommendations out of 499 total, earning a success rate of 72% and a +15.3% average return per recommendation. He is known in professional and personal circles as “The Renaissance Man,” because his expertise includes such varied fields as composing and performing music; Western horsemanship, combat marksmanship, martial arts, auto racing and bodybuilding. Jim holds a BA in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a former U.S. Army paratrooper. A self-described “radical for capitalism,” he celebrates the virtue of making money from his Southern California horse ranch.